The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-07
PROGRESS OF THE CoLoRED RACE.
Views of CIergyman-Beiief that the South
Carolina "Scare" Is Political.

Views OF n CIergyman-Beief that the South
Carolina "Scare" Is Political.
Washington Special.
The Rev. Alexander Crummell, D. D., rector
Of St Luke's Episcopal Church in Washington,
Is one of the best-informed and most thoughtful
solored men in the country In a letter on the
moral and social condition OF the colored people
ri Washington. DIR. Crummell makes some OBJ
servations which have direct-application to the
relations Of the white and colored races in parts
of South Carolina which have been made the
subject of recent sensational dispatches from
that State. In part he writes:
ct grant with deep regret that there is a
ton of the race 10 this District, degraded, vio-
lent, addicted to petty and at times dangerous
crimes. l beg to state here, however as have
stated elsewhere. that since emancipation fully
third of the black has risen to a superb
ority which runs parallel with the level OF white
society in this country. Here, in this District,
is an educated, cultivated property holding class
OF colored people, not q few, not isolated in
stances, but class proving the existence of the
superiority which l claim. Next that fully
third more have risen, not indeed to superiority,
but certainly to state of comfort, laborious
thrift, self-5uDport. aud to domestic progress,
which places them many degrees above both the
mental and physical status of slaves. The citi-
zens OF Washingto on every side, see proofs of
this statement in thousands of the laboring
classes around them. There is, however third
class which. without doubt, is in many respects
degraded, possibly more vicious, than the
for liberty. who eschew industrial
habits who rush habituslly into vice,
pro6igacy and crime How to
account for this large third class9 My answer is
that the white society of this country is largely
responsible y There are two causes which
are constantly breeding this very class. The freed
people of the South fleeing IL large numbers
from the rural districts and OVERLOOKING both the
large cities the Atlantic seaboard and most of
the great internal cities and inland towns. What
causes this exodus2 1t is owing chiefly to a
vile state of semi-serfdom into which the black
farming population is held, and which has taken
the place of the old system of slavery. The
landed propretors of the South. not the entire
class, but large proportion, will not work their
farms nor will they sell the land to the freed
men. Instead thereof they maintain a tenant
system of the most grinding and destructive
character, keeping this people at the close OF
every year IN perpetual debt, until at last thou
sands upon thousands of these wretched laborers
rise up in utter despair shake tha dust off their
feet against the old plantations of their servi-
tude and flock to the large towns and cities. 1t
is owing to this state of thipee that Washington
has such very large refugee black population.
poor and INDECENT, debased and violent"
Dr. Crummel writes of what he knows, and
the truth of his statements will not be denied by
any fair-minded and intelligent man who knows
the facts. There indications, too, that the
sensational stories which have begun to appear
only the first steps in a Democratic conspir-
acy hold the South in solid line until after the
presidential election. The large accessions of
white voters TO the Republican ranks in North
Carolina and Virginia. and the wavering in the
Democratic lines in South Carolina itself. have
wakened the deepest solicitude among the Demo
cratic leaders. Already the word has gone out
from Washington through Virginia and North
Carolina that those States must be carried ''at
all hazards" In Virginia "Mahone must be de-
feated at whatever cost" There is a heavy col
ored Republican vote in Virginia and South
Carolina. If the race issue be made para
mount, if the color line can be drawn by what
ever MEANS the colored vote be suppressed
in Virginia and North Carolina it has been in
South Carolina.